Idapresskit
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
Contact: James H. Wilson
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 23, 1993
NASA's Galileo spacecraft will encounter its second
asteroid, called Ida, Saturday, August 28, on its way to Jupiter.
Galileo made the world's first asteroid encounter -- with Gaspra
--in October 1991.
At 9:52 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (UTC minus 7 hours)
Saturday, Galileo will pass within 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles)
of Ida at a relative speed of about 12.4 kilometers per second
(28,000 miles per hour). Radio signals confirming encounter will
reach controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 30 minutes
later.
Galileo's camera and other scientific instruments will
record observations beginning several hours before until several
minutes after closest approach.
Because the spacecraft must use its low-gain antenna for all
communications, the pictures and other data will be played back
slowly in September and next 1994. "However," said Project
Manager William J. O'Neil, "we will have a data set as good as
Gaspra -- or better."
Ida is a stony body, irregular in shape and about 31
kilometers (20 miles) long. It is larger than Gaspra and orbits
farther from the Sun. Ida is believed to belong to the same
asteroid type as Gaspra, though younger and of slightly different
composition.
Galileo will reach the planet Jupiter in December 1995. Its
mission is to study Jupiter, its satellites and magnetosphere,
using an atmospheric probe and an orbiter scheduled for a 10-
orbit, 23-month survey. JPL manages the project for NASA's
Office of Space Science.
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8-23-93 JHW
#1525
Credit: aquarius-project.blogspot.com
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